


thank you for that heartbreak at seventeen

by kuro49



Series: thirty days of writing '18 [18]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU
Genre: Childhood Sweethearts, Drabble, Jason Todd is Catlad, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-08-05 04:52:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16361174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuro49/pseuds/kuro49
Summary: The two of them read like a bad romance novel.





	thank you for that heartbreak at seventeen

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: evening silence
> 
> all schmoop because i'm a loser for childhood sweethearts that don't work out the first time around. also stray!jason.

 

Dick Grayson doesn't make it a habit of coming home for good reasons.

When Gotham looks the exact same years apart, it feels a little bit unfair coming back here to see that nothing has changed even if everything has unequivocally upended itself. Because Batman and Catwoman are getting married and the invitations have gone out.

“So,” Nightwing starts, glancing over at the man of his dreams since before he's hit puberty and there are some complicated emotions associated with the situation when. “We’re going to be brothers, huh?”

Next to him, Stray is draped across his favorite gargoyle like he has been waiting for Nightwing to point this out, lying stretched out, looking like a sight that is spread out just for him. Even when it really shouldn't because the two of them haven't been _that_ for a very long time now. And Nightwing is not proud but that thought does things to a man. 

“Seems that way.” Stray answers, his face half hidden in the shadows. “You came by to give your old man your well wishes?”

“You could say that.”

If Stray wants to hear it at all, Nightwing wants to admit that he misses this.

He misses _him_ even if the two of them read like a bad romance novel.

But that is to be expected when you consider just who their mentors are. It is almost like they are taking up right after them, following them right down the same path, and Dick has to wonder how much of this Selina or Bruce saw coming (probably all of it and none of it given they are finally tying the knot).

“And you could say a lot of things, Dickiebird.” Jason tugs the dark red reflective lenses of his goggles down to glance up at Dick from beneath his hood. “But aren’t you usually a little more talkative than this?”

“If that’s your way of asking me if _cat’s got your tongue_ , I’m going to be so mad, Jay.” Dick answers, not quite able to look away from the cigarette perched precariously between Jason’s fingers. His eyes follow, from the scattering of ashes down on to the Gotham streets to that practiced lazy way Jason has down to an art when he brings it to his parted lips to drag in a slow, deep inhale. Jason is amused and it shows with the way his mouth curls into an arc that Dick remembers by touch and taste alone. 

They made a truce way back when (during those early days when they both looked the other way when Bruce and Selina did their dance) that there wouldn’t be any cat or bird puns no matter how tempting it got.

Stray laughs and the evening silence that surrounds them give way when he reaches out and snags an extended claw into the body armour of Nightwing’s blue and black to yank him in.

“Lighten up, your old man’s marrying my old lady. We saw this coming since we were like twelve, Dickie.” Jason says, mouth close and red and wet and gleaming. “But that’s between Nightwing and Stray. What’s changed?”

And isn't that the million dollar question when it comes down to it. With Nightwing finding his place in Blüdhaven outside of the reaches of the bat, Stray goes back to his old haunts in the Narrows. They no longer share the same stomping grounds.

For better and for worse, it comes with growing up.

It also comes with the territory of playing vigilante and crook for just as long.

Dick doesn't pull away even when he probably should. With his body aligned with his, Dick can feel every nerve lit up with the same realization that he is only coming to now: He’s never gotten over Jason Todd-Kyle and he probably never will. 

“We did.” Dick offers weakly because this is him putting it together. It should have come with moving on but.

He’s seen Jason draped in stolen gold and pearls, bracelets and crowns and necklaces that tangle. He’s also seen him in nothing but scars from both before and after Selina has taken him in. And he’s wanted nothing except _more_ since. 

Dick laughs a little because this is the sum of it, of them both.

“What are you waiting for? The perfect moment when we were stupid and brash passed a long time ago.”

Coming from Jason, what goes unsaid speaks volumes and it is sounding a whole lot like _it’s your move now_. Jason's voice is neither soft or quiet, it sounds like it is held together by a steel rod and infinite patience through some very long years of resentment. Dick touches his mouth to his and it is tentative only up until the point where Jason lets out a growl before he is opening up wide to sink his canines down into the swell of Dick's bottom lip.

And then Dick is kissing him with tongue and enough teeth to match Jason's fervor.

“...You ever regret it?” Dick asks, almost careful, not quite willing to face down all those years they have spent (apart) when he finally draws back. He lets him go time and time again for reasons that are far more selfish than he has himself believing.

Jason shakes his head in the negative. This thing of theirs, they had to grow into. He knows that now. “I would’ve hated you if we stayed together.”

“You hated me then?”

He was sixteen, he was seventeen, they didn’t know what they wanted, and it showed.

“I didn’t love you like I love you now.”

Dick breathes in the Gotham night air, fills his lungs to their capacity and it is here that he knows the exact path they have taken to reach this. He leans in, he pushes his nose into the crook of Jason’s neck until there is no distance between them again before breathing out.

“Thank you, Jay.”

 


End file.
